New Technology is awesome!

For most people you only get relay excited during the Christmas season. The feeling you get opening something up and setting it up, or using it for the first time. Well I get that feeling every time I get a new tech toy and gadget!

I am now the proud owner of a super fast DOCSIS 3.0 Motorola modem. I upgraded from my old rented modem from my ISP for the past several months. I will say this. I should have put the money towards buying my own modem right from the start. I could have put that money to my new one. Something to think about. If you are renting a modem, that money could go and buy a modem that you can then sell later, if you ever leave or cancel your internet connection. If your renting, thats money gone, and you can't sell your modem later.

Thats settled now, moving on to the good stuff. So my new modem has boosted my overall speed performance for my home network. I have gained a increace to an average of 7 Mbps (Mega Bits per second) Now for most people that is something you would never even know happend. What I mean is, the average home user is paying for a 1Mbps to 5 Mbps connection. Some might have a 10Mbps, but even with a relitivly fast connection most home users only have a basic low level wireless / wired network at home. This would be discribed as a wireless B or G network. Wireless B, 802.11b, is only 11 Mbps. This works fine for checking e-mail and reading online posts. Wireless G, 802.11g, will output 54 Mbps. This will do all of what I listed already, and this will alow youtube and video streaming. Now I say this will alow, but it will be hit and miss. You will start a video but it will stop and need to buffer (load more video or data) more of the video before playback continues. This is what people refer to as freezing or even crashing of the video. This is not the case, the cause is the speed of the wifi connection, as well as the speed you are getting from your ISP. The third wireless standard is wireless N, 802.11n, This is the fastest wifi speed that the public can use. This speed is roughly 300 Mbps. Some routers will say 300+300 this means that there are two bands or signals being used to brodcast the 300 Mbps speeds more reliably.

The other very cool thing I now get to call my own is.......  A shiny new Bluetooth Logitech keyboard for my PS3. This thing is great. When I am using the web and searching things this makes it so easy. I also have a fast and great way to send messages through the friends chat online. Yeah this might be over kill but it is something that makes life just a little cooler. 

RSS does not stand for Randy's super sushi

What is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

Why RSS? Benefits and Reasons for using RSS

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and grows each day.

What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed? RSS Feed Readers and News Aggregators

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.

A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.

Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available

Thoughts on Technology

I've had lots of people ask me "what makes that so much better?" "why do you use that brand?" and many more questions about technology. I also get the person who hates anything but his old typewriter, well okay maybe not the typewriter, but you get the idea. Why does it seem that people draw a line in the sand about technology. Either live with it, or without it and that final? Well I have always lived with as much technology around me as I can. I am all for letting technology help me in my life any and every way I can. The polar opposite of this is of course the guy or girl who doesn't have an e-mail address, doesn't have a cell phone, has a computer but doesn't use it for anything, reads a actual paper. Okay the last one is still a useful way of getting news. but you see my point. We have come into an ever growing world of technology and that technology is what drives all the things we do in our daily lives.

I will be the first one to tell you. I almost go into a panic state if I forget my iPhone someplace or if the battery dies and I can't get to a charger soon. Being disconnected from the world makes me crazy. Not knowing if I have received a e-mail, not knowing if a twitter update or reply has come in. Sounds silly, but that is how half of my life is lived. I say half because in my field of work, e-mail and twitter and sometimes facebook are all ways I do business and get work done. I have just gotten a Google voice number as well and skype is being more of a tool to me then ever before (Google voice review coming soon).

Technology is only going to expand and grow every day, and even every hour. We can not escape technology and it will only prove to help our lives as we move forward towards the future.